Stockholm's bid is now in doubt as political support is not given in Sweden. Only 3 candidates are in the race and all have serious doubts over them.

Stockholm's two newly merged parties agreed they will not support hosting The Games.

The Green Party and the centre-right Alliance have said they will not host the 2026 Winter Olympics, but the leaders of the bid leaders have vowed to carry on.

Huge question marks now hang over the funding of the bid.

The news comes just three days after the IOC voted at its Session in Buenos Aires to shortlist Sweden's bid along with Calgary in Canada and a joint bid form Milan and Cortina in Italy.

"The starting point for all our parties has been to ensure that a Winter Olympics will not be funded by taxpayers' funds," Karin Ernlund, a member of the Centre Party, told Swedish media.

"The Games must also be arranged in a way that does not cover our environmental and climate work.

"The assessment is also that Stockholm faces other major challenges we need to work with.

"Therefore, Stockholm will not host the 2026 Winter Olympics."

Anna König Jerlmyr, a member of the Moderate Party, added: "There is no clear foundation for a Winter Olympics right now, but everyone wants in the future, so the question is when."

Here at PlanetSKI we will be updating this story with further reaction and analysis so do check back.

In other recent developments Lausanne will host the 2019 IOC session as Milan in Italy bids for 2026 Winter Olympics.

Milan had been scheduled to hold the session but it is unable to as the ession will decide the winner.

Rule 33 of the Olympic Charter states that the decision of where to host an Olympic Games cannot be held in a country which has a candidate for the Games concerned.

Milan had been keen to still host the 2019 Session despite its bid, but that has been ruled out.

Lausanne will now host the event in June 2019 and it is likely to be on the 23rd of the month.

It also brings the decision forward by three months as Milan had planned to hold the Session in September.

"We had talks with the different candidate cities - we were from the very beginning of the opinion that shortening this period is another opportunity to cut costs of the bidding procedure and to save money for the candidature committee and all the candidature committees then agreed with this shortening of this period," said the IOC President, Thomas Bach.

The others cities bidding for 2026 are Calgary in Canada and Stockholm in Sweden.

Calgary will hold a referendum in November and the decision is far from guaranteed with considerable local opposition. Stockholm currently lacks political backing.

This does not seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the IOC for the cities bidding.

"We are very pleased with the quality of the candidatures, and look forward to extending our collaboration with the Cities and the respective National Olympic Committees," said IOC President, Thomas Bach.

"We will continue to tailor our approach to the specific needs and objectives of each candidate, ensuring that the Olympic Winter Games 2026 can adapt to support their ambitions and vision for the future," he added.